[Spellyans] 'Valley' in Cornish

[nicholas williams]

Although not in the earliest of manuscripts PA is the oldest  
continuous text in Middle Cornish.
It is the only one that has an example of the t-preterite (pan gemert  
kyg a werhas PA 3).
PA is also the only text in which the pluperfect is used as a  
pluperfect rather than a conditional.
It is not astonishing therefore that the plural nanssow occurs in PA.
By the sixteenth century, when the original version of CW was written,  
nans had probably been replaced
in speech by valy.

Nicholas

On 28 Jul 2008, at 12:46, Jon Mills wrote:

> Lhuyd (AB: 4c)  includes "†Nans, A Valley" amongst a list of words  
> in the Vocabularium Cornicum "which are now disus'd by the Cornish,  
> but still understood by the Welsh."
> Jon
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "nicholas williams"
> To: "Standard Cornish discussion list"
> Subject: Re: [Spellyans] 'Valley' in Cornish
> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:32:14 +0100
>
> I notice that Neil gives in his gerlevran:
>
> valley(n): (usu) rôsh (Lh,WG) var rôz (WG cv PN rose)-ow; (Biblical  
> or major) vali(m)-s, e.g. en Vali
> Ebron, deveri (WJ); (arch) nans(m)pl nanjow
>
> He considers vali to be a major or biblical valley and nans to be  
> archaic.
>
> Nicholas
>
> On 28 Jul 2008, at 11:38, Jon Mills wrote:
>
>> In PA we find
>> "In erna zen menyzyow
>> why a ergh warnough coze
>> yn ketella an nanssow
>> wy a bys ragas cuthe".
>> Jon
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "nicholas williams"
>> To: "Standard Cornish discussion list"
>> Subject: Re: [Spellyans] , , etc
>> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:49:10 +0100
>>
>> Apart from the toponym Valy Ebron there are, as far as I am aware,  
>> no examples in the texts of valy 'valley'. There are no examples of  
>> nans 'valley' in the texts either.
>> Since the author of CW wrote Valy Ebron for the new toponym Valy of  
>> Hebron, it seems to me (without further evidence) that his ordinary  
>> word for 'valley' was valy.
>> ....
>>
>> Nicholas
>>
>> _____________________________________
>> Dr. Jon Mills,
>> School of European Culture and Languages,
>> University of Kent
>>
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>
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>
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> University of Kent
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